Editing Old Sparky (section)

==New York==
[[File:Singchair.jpg|thumb|The electric chair at Sing Sing prison in the early 20th century]]
[[File:Electric Chair at Sing Sing-noborder.jpg|thumb|A man being strapped into the electric chair at [[Sing Sing prison]] in the early 20th century.]]
In 1887, New York State established a committee to determine a new, more humane system of execution to replace [[hanging]]. Alfred P. Southwick, a member of the committee, developed the idea of putting electric current through a device after hearing about how relatively painlessly and quickly a drunken man died after touching exposed power lines. As Southwick was a dentist accustomed to performing procedures on sitting subjects, his electrical device appeared in the form of a chair.<ref>{{cite journal|author1=Christen, AG|author2=Christen JA|title=Alfred P. Southwick, MDS, DDS: dental practitioner, educator and originator of electrical executions|journal=Journal of the History of Dentistry|volume=48|issue=3|pages=115–45|date=November 2000|pmid=11806253}}</ref>

On June 4, 1888, [[Governor of New York|Governor]] [[David B. Hill]] authorized the introduction of the electric chair. It was first used two years later when [[William Kemmler]] became the first person in the world to be [[electrocution|executed by electricity]] at [[Auburn Prison]], [[Auburn, New York]] on August 6, 1890.

"Old Sparky" was first used at [[Sing Sing]] prison for a mass execution on July 7, 1891. The order of execution, which would start at 4:30&nbsp;a.m., was listed as James J. Slocum, Harris Smiler, Shibuya Jugiro, and Joseph Wood.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://baseballhistoryblog.com/tag/baseball-execution/|title=Jimmy Slocum Executed, Minor League Ballplayer|publisher=baseballhistoryblog.com|access-date=21 November 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100622090901/http://baseballhistoryblog.com/tag/baseball-execution/|archive-date=22 June 2010|url-status=dead}}</ref>

From 1914, all executions in New York state were conducted at Sing Sing prison using "Old Sparky". After a series of escapes from death row, the ''Death House'' at Sing Sing was built in 1920 and began executions in 1922. It was a prison within the Sing Sing prison. The Death House block, which had its own hospital, kitchen, visiting room, and exercise yard, had 24 single cells plus an additional three cells for condemned women. A chamber where a prisoner spent their last day was nicknamed the "Dance Hall". A corridor, known as the "Last Mile", connected the ante-room to the execution chamber in which the electric chair was situated.

Executions at Sing Sing were traditionally carried out at 11 p.m. on Thursdays. Condemned prisoners would be brought into the execution room escorted by seven guards and the [[prison chaplain]]. Already waiting in the room would be the [[warden of Sing Sing]], the [[state electrician]], two doctors and twelve state-appointed witnesses. After the condemned prisoner was strapped into the chair and the electrodes attached, the warden would step forward and read out the [[death penalty|final decision]] on the sentence. The prisoner would be asked for any last words or for a [[benediction]]. With a signal, the execution would then begin. Witnesses would leave once both doctors had confirmed that death had occurred.

In 75 years of operation, 695 people were executed in electric chairs in New York state correctional facilities (614 at Sing Sing, including the [[Julius and Ethel Rosenberg|Rosenbergs' 1953 execution for espionage]]).  The last person to be executed in New York state was [[Eddie Lee Mays]] who was electrocuted at Sing Sing on August 15, 1963. Two years later the State of New York abolished [[Capital punishment in New York|capital punishment]]. In 1995 the state reinstated death penalty by [[lethal injection]]. However, no executions were performed under the 1995 statute, and in 2004, the [[New York Court of Appeals]] ruled in ''[[People v. LaValle]]'' that state death penalty violated the [[Constitution of New York|state's constitution]].